USA > New York > A brief history of the Twenty-Eighth Regiment New York State Volunteers, First Brigade, First Division, Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac, from the author's diary and official reports. With the muster-roll of the regiment, and many pictures, articles and letters > Part 12
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but we were all able to say there was more "pleasure in anticipation " than in " participation," for one evening on dress parade, Colonel Cook addressed the regi- ment in a few words upon the subject of going to Baltimore, and finally said, " Sol- diers, our going to Baltimore has played out," and then earnestly expressed the de- sire that we quit ourselves like noble, brave soldiers, and when our time ex- pired we would return to our homes bearing bright laurels of victory with "our drums beating " and "our flags flying." But the boys saw it in a different light, and they all said, "We will go home in- deed, but with our ' flags beating ' and the 'drums flying.' "
At this time Major Tieranney was not with us. He suddenly and mysteriously disappeared on our march from Harper's Ferry, after the Antietam battle, and we never heard of him after that day. It was with profound regret that we lost him, and, if he is now in the land of the living, we would be delighted to be put in com- munication with him. We never knew why or how he left us, but the small rem- nant of the old Fife and Drum Corps would rejoice to extend fraternal greeting to our old leader after all these years of separation, while we
" Let the dead past bury its dead With heart within and God o'er head."
While the musicians did not carry the musket they filled another prominent place in camp and on the battlefield, rendering invaluable service with the ambulance corps and surgeons, caring for the wounded on the field, and nursing the sick in the
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THE FIFE AND DRUM CORPS.
hospitals - constantly under fire from the shells of the enemy while engaged on the field of battle, or exposed to the diseases of the hospital. Some of our casualties I might mention.
John O. Swan, the drummer of Co. D, was taken prisoner at the battle of Chan- cellorsville, but was paroled in time to be mustered out with the regiment. He died several years ago, after having studied medicine and practiced his profession a few years.
Merritt Raymond of Co. G, our bass drummer, was wounded and taken prisoner at Cedar Mountain fight, August 9, 1862. He was again captured at Chancellorsville. Merritt Raymond was born in Johnsburg, Warren County, N. Y., March 9, 1840, and died in Albion, N. Y., August 23, 1889. He was a brave and faithful soldier and left an untarnished record, the choicest monument the world ever beheld.
Origin Richardson, drummer of Co. G, we never hear from, but he is reported living somewhere in the State of Vermont.
John Minor, drummer of Co. H, was captured in our Winchester fight in the spring of 1862, under General Banks, but he used some cunning strategem with the Johnnies, and at Mt. Jackson he concealed himself under the floor of their quarters during the night, and when the rebels left in the morning Johnnie Minor crawled from his hiding place and returned to the regiment. He never reports, but is sup- posed to be alive and residing in Duchess County, N. Y.
Byron C. Anderson, the tall, rosy cheek drummer of Co. K, is a farmer in South
Dakota, where in the past few years, to- gether with the writer of this, we have often met and played the same old airs we used to play in our Southern camps, and many times have enlivened the old soldiers' gatherings with the martial music of war times. Last 4th of July the citizens of Huron, S. D., paid our transportation and entertainment to play for a three days' G. A. R. encampment and 4th of July cele- bration in that city.
But the ranks of our Twenty-eighth Drum Corps are thinning, and very soon the dead march will be played for the last one. and then the martial strains of our beloved band will be forever stilled.
From all sources I am able to account for only the following members :
Company D .- William W. Eastman, fifer. Company G .- Origin Richardson, drum- mer. Company H. - Joseph Taylor, fifer ; John Minor, drummer. Company I. - Homer Fields, drummer. Company K .- Edmond Stony, fifer ; Byron C. Anderson, drummer.
From the above it transpires that less than one half of our old Drum Corps are still "present or accounted for." The balance of our members are now sleep- ing on "fame's eternal camping ground," or if living are numbered among the missing.
We bow our heads in sorrow when we remember those who are gone forever from us, and we long for the day to come when we can grasp the hand of the small rem- nant left, before the final muster out of our old Twenty-eighth Fife and Drum Corps.
SURGERY IN THE TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.
THOMAS CUSHING, M. D.
T HERE was nothing peculiar in the surgery of this regiment to dis- tinguish it from that of others. Although the number of regiments in the field dur- ing the Civil War was immense, the gen- eral features of the surgery in each were very much like those of all others, varied only by different circumstances in the midst of which different regiments found them- selves.
Many aspersions have been cast on the character of medical officers in the volun- teer regiments, and although these severe
criticisms were in many instances war- ranted by the facts, yet the proportion of unworthy medical men in the service was probably not much if any greater than in civil life. It is true that in the service there is not the same kind of personal responsibil- ity that confronts practitioners in civil life ; and those who were disposed to be indolent could indulge their laziness with a degress of impunity. Recklessness and empiricism were more prevalent among young army surgeons than the same physicians would have ventured to indulge or practice among
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
their patients in private life : but aside from these, the attention which sick soldiers re- ceived was as careful and unremitting as under similar circumstance would have been bestowed on them in civil life.
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Army practice brought medical men many useful lessons. At home their patients are surrounded by all the cares and attentions - many of them worse than useless - that anxious mothers and sisters can bestow. They are kept out of " drafts," deprived of the share of fresh air which is more necessary for them when they are in bed than at any other time, al- most smothered in bed coverings, and crammed with delicacies which their appe- tites do not crave and which they often loathed. In the field they are surrounded by quite different circumstances. If in camp, they are sheltered by airy tents, or per- haps canvas covers to keep off the rain, and they are often fortunate if they have even straw to lie on ; and on the march they are jolted along in ambulances. After a battle the wounded are sheltered by barns, stables, outhouses, corn cribs and even pig pens, or shielded from the sun's rays by temporary shelter of straw ; yet they are found to make more rapid and better recoveries than those who are surrounded with more comforts and less fresh air.
After the battle of Antietam three wounded men at the Twelfth Corps hos- pital were quartered in a house, but two windows and a door to the apartment where they lay were kept open. Even then they were not making as good prog- ress as those that lay out of doors. They were taken out and placed on a height in a tent, the sides of which were raised so as to allow the wind to sweep freely over them ; and from that time a marked im- provement was visible.
At the hospital - or depot for the wounded -twenty-two amputations were made, and twenty recovered ; but at an- other, a mile distant, according to the re- port of an inspector, there were seventy cases of amputation, nineteen of which were already dead and the twentieth was about to die. The operations appeared to have been skilfully performed and the patients well cared for, but something in the sani- tary conditions of the place led to their great mortality. The hospital was a large stone farmhouse, and probably the pa- tients were quartered in it.
It was found that when troops were on the march the health of the men was much
better than when they were in camp. This was especially true with regard to the bowel complaints that were prevalent dur- ing operations in Virginia ; and the medi- cal officers always expected the health of the men to improve when camp was broken and a march commenced. This was largely due to the fresh air which the men inhaled as they marched through the country and temporarily bivouacked or en- camped at night and in part to the absence of microbes which rapidly accumulate in camp, notwithstanding the measures adopted to prevent such accumulation.
The medical officers of the Twenty- eighth were Dr. Helmer, surgeon ; and Dr. R. S. Paine, assistant surgeon. The author of this article was appointed an ad- ditional assistant surgeon in the summer of 1862, and some time after the resigna- tion of Dr. Helmer, Dr. West, of Michigan, was appointed surgeon. The active surg- ical duties devolved mostly on the assistant surgeons.
Dr. Paine was always faithful and efficient in the discharge of these duties, and his native good heartedness led him to kind acts toward the sick that greatly assuaged the sufferings of many a poor fellow who was languishing on his straw and thinking of home, where mother, sister or wife would minister to him.
Of the other assistant surgeon mod- esty forbids that anything should now be said.
In the Twenty-eighth, as in all the regi- ments in the service, there were many scamps. Some of these were adroit and cunning in feigning illness to avoid duty, but their lack of knowledge as to what symptoms indicated the conditions which they assumed, or the disease with which they pretended to be affected usually be- trayed them sooner or later.
The surgeons were more willing to be imposed on than to send a sick man to duty ; but when it became evident that a dead beat was seeking to shirk his duties, they sought to make him appear ridiculous in the eyes of his comrades rather than to inflict severe punishments.
One soldier for several days practiced ligaturing his leg for a time before surg- eons' call and because of the swollen and congested condition of the limb he was excused from duty. After the case had continued for some days without improv- ing or becoming worse, the doctor "smelt a rat," and insisted on examining the leg
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THE SIGNAL SERVICE. 1
nearer his body. When his trousers had been pulled far enough up the string was discovered, and the doctor cut it in the presence of the fellow's jeering and laugh- ing comrades.
The same man once came to surgeons' call reeling and staggering and with one eye closed, declaring that he could not walk straight, and that if he opened both eyes he saw double. He was told that his symptoms portended speedy death, but that while life lasted he might as well make himself useful by going on duty in- stead of straying six miles from camp, as he had done on the previous day.
Another, a 'recruit that had been picked up in Dixie land, had an ingrowing toe nail. He had cut away the part of his shoe that covered it, so that it did not lame him, but he insisted on being ex- cused from the fatigue duty in which the regiment was then engaged. One morn- ing the doctors were called to his quar- ters, where they found him feigning lock- jaw. So firmly was his mouth closed that his lips could not be parted to enable him to speak. The doctors pronounced it a bad case, and in his presence de- cided that men should be detailed to bring water from a stream near by ( it was winter ) and pour it on his head from a height of four feet, during a half hour,
i and then, if necessary, for half an hour longer; and if that did not succeed, the nape of his neck was to be cauterized with a red- hot iron. They concluded, however, be- fore entering on this heroic treatment to try a certain medicine. Accordingly, they sent him a tumbler partly filled with water and directed that a teaspoonful should be given once in fifteen minutes. After suck- ing the second dose through his lips the titanic spasm suddenly relaxed, and he ex- claimed, "I'm all right now." His com- rades bored him about his lockjaw until he finally deserted.
Surgical operations in regiments were generally limited to accidents or to wounds received in minor actions. After general engagements the wounded were collected in corps or division hospitals or depots, whence the slightly wounded were soon sent to general hospitals, and those who had received serious injuries were ope- rated on and treated at these depots, and as soon as practicable sent to nearby field hospitals prepared for their reception.
Regimental surgeons and assistant sur- geons were detailed for service at these depots, and thence, as soon as practica- ble, were sent to join their regiments and resume their duties there. To this rule the medical staff of the Twenty-eighth was not an exception.
THE SIGNAL SERVICE. By CAPTAIN W. W. ROWLEY, Milwaukee, Wis.
A T EACH succeeding reunion of the Twenty-eighth New York my wish grows stronger to be present, but there is something always to intervene to prevent my doing so, and this year is no exception to the others. At your request I send a short sketch of the Signal Corps as con- nected with the gallant Twenty-eighth.
Early in September, 1861, an order came ยท to the regiment detailing two officers and four men, ordering them to report to the school of instruction for Signal duty at Darnestown, Md. Our regiment had just gone into camp near that place. Lieuten- ant Frank Wicker and myself were selected as the officers, and we, together with four as fine men as the regiment could furnish, reported to Captain L. F. Hepburn, who was to instruct us in the art of sending
messages by flag and torch from one point to another. There were assembled at this school of instruction about twelve or fifteen officers with their respective complement of men. The men had been selected with great care for their physical, as well as mental ability, and it would be difficult to find a body of men of equal number more able or better equipped than they were. In fact they were so very clever that before a week had elapsed they all were ordered back to their regiments, for the reason they had learned the code of signals and could transmit and receive a message as well as any of the officers. This code was designed to be kept a profound secret con- fined to the officers only. So we on the start lost the flower of our corps, their places being filled by men not as competent.
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
Colonel Donnelly told me he would pick out four men and pour lead in their ears so that they could not rival the officers
1
I now see the mistake of sending the men back to the regiments, for no man of any intelligence could be associated with an officer without picking up the code of signals, and as these men were just as trusty and reliable as any of the officers, they could have been retained with entire safety. This camp of instruction, made up of bright young officers and men, remains in my memory one of the few bright spots of the War. After a few weeks of instruc- tion a line of signal stations was estab- lished from Darnestown to Maryland Heights (Harper's Ferry). The inter- mediate stations being Poolsville and Point of Rocks. Two officers with four men being assigned to each station. Many of the Twenty-eighth will remember the " Chestnut-tree Station " on the McGruder farm near Darnestown, it was picturesque. The upper limbs sustained a platform for the man to wave his flag, while just underneath was the platform for the officer, who, with his glass, kept watch of the com- municating station. These platforms were some forty or fifty feet above the ground, and were reached by rustic ladders.
This was the first line of signal stations established on the Potomac. Each station had a telescope trained upon the commu- nicating station, and a man sat at the glass constantly, night and day, so that when the station called by waving its flag the man on watch would notify the officer who would receive the message. At night a torch was used in place of the flag.
The engagement at " Ball's Bluff " fur- nished the first messages of battle trans- mitted over this line.
When the army was on the march, each signal officer, with his two men, carried a
complete equipment of glasses, flags and torch, so that at any point he could set up a station and open communication at once. At the battle of Kearnstown. near Winchester, Va., fought in the spring of 1862, this corps received its "first baptism of fire," and covered itself with glory, so as to receive commendation by a special order from General Shields, com- manding.
l'ou all remember how, on marching to and fro through the Shenandoah Valley. the signal squad could be seen way to- wards the front, frequently in advance, with its little flag flying.
At first it was a mystery to you all, but you soon learned to look upon it as a sign of security feeling that it was the " eye " of the army, keeping watch of the enemy. It is impossible, without spinning this paper out to tediousness, to enter into details and incidents. Suffice it to say, this par- ticular corps was with you back and forth through the Shenandoah, over the ridge to Culpeper, Cedar Mountain, across the Rappahannock to Bull Run No. 2, across tl.e Potomac to South Mountain and An- tietam, with faithful devotion and untir- ing activity. Of the two officers from the Twenty-eighth the writer was sent with the "Banks' expedition " to the Depart ment of the Gulf, where he remained un- til his term of service expired.
The other, Lieutenant Wicker, followed to the same department, in connection with the Field Telegraph. Afterwards he went to Alaska in the interest of the Over- land Telegraph to Russia. At the begin- ning of the War the signal corps was an innovation on army methods. It was an experiment ; but it made itself so useful that before its close it became a regular organized department of the army of the United States.
1
THE POSTAL SERVICE IN THE ARMY.
By C. W. BOYCE, Postmaster, Twenty-eighth N. Y.
T HE mail service in the army was ably managed by the Post-office Depart- ment at Washington, and the soldiers were well supplied with mail facilities,- consid- ering the fact that the regiments so often changed positions.
ton, D. C.," the Post-office Department there being constantly advised of the loca- tion of the several commands. The mail was assorted into pouches and forwarded direct to the several corps headquarters wherever they were stationed.
Early in the war the Government ar- Each corps had a postmaster, whose duties were to distribute the mail to the ranged that all mail for the Army of the Po- tomac should be addressed " Washington, I several divisions and brigades. These
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POSTAL SERVICE IN THE REGIMENT.
distributed it to the organizations in their commands. In special cases regiments or batteries, which had a man detailed for this work were allowed to send direct to the corps, thereby saving delay. In many regiments the Chaplain had charge of the mails, when an orderly would be sent to the brigade headquarters for it.
The Twenty-eighth New York had a regularly appointed postmaster. While at Albany a lad from Company D was ap- pointed to this position. Whether ne per- formed his duties satisfactorily or not is not for the present writer to say. The officers and men of the regiment always seemed satisfied, and he retained the position dur- ing the entire term. He was allowed a horse to ride; was exempted from that very irksome part of a soldier's life - guard duty ; had much more freedom and a better knowledge of the general situation of military affairs than was enjoyed by other members of the regiment. Besides, this boy postmaster was like most nineteen year old boys, fond of excitement ; and the rides about the country in the perforni- ance of his duties were often exciting and very interesting. Not infrequently he found that a good square meal at some farm- house helped wonderfully well to appease a boy's hearty appetite that "hard tack " did not entirely satisfy. His office did not excuse him from active service as a soldier, and he participated in every action in which the regiment was engaged, either in the ranks with his company, or when mounted, acting as orderly to Colonels Donnelly and Brown. This was the case at C'edar Mountain, where he was the only one 'ett with Colonel Donnelly when he received h:, death wound, and assisted him off that fatal field, his Orderly, Oscar Draper, hav- !!. y had his horse shot early in the action. The duties of the postmaster required itive and often very hard service. At (ther times, when the Corps' Headquarters were near, it was very light. The time of receiving the mail and going with it, varied cording to the distance to be traveled. 1.'e postmaster's tent was usually situated. #: the head of Company D street ; the re- cptacle for the mail was a large tin box, wach hung from some convenient tree. At a given hour, which had been previ- usly announced in each company street, the contents of this box were put in saddle ";> ind thrown over the faithful horse " Dolly " that carried the mail for so long a tile. With a last call of " Letters! Letters!"
for the benefit of someone who was sure to be late, the departure for the head- quarters of the corps would be made. There it would be exchanged for the newly arrived mail from Washington, and the return ride made with all despatch. . The arrival in camp was always greeted with welcome shouts, and the men crowded about the Post-office tent to see if they had been remembered by loved ones at home. The Orderly Sergeants came for the mail for their several companies and distrib- uted it to the men. The quantity of mail the regiment received daily, varied. Usu- ally about a bushel of letters and papers were received. Often, however, when the army was moving, and the mail could not be delivered daily, an accumulation of sev- eral days brought the bulk up to several times this amount. In cases of this kind the ambulance would be called into use to bring it to the camp.
At times the Corps' Headquarters were so far from camp that the return trip had to be made the succeeding day. This was the case at Culpeper Court House. The ride had to be made in a July sun to Lit- tle Washington, a distance of nearly thirty miles, returning each alternate day. The intervening country was not occupied by the army, and the enemy's cavalry and "guerrillas " were often on the road, but were always successfully eluded. If the boy had been intercepted, it would have been a race or capture, perhaps both. The adventure best remembered on this route was in being "called down " by General Pope for fast riding. It was an extremely hot day, and Dolly was sweat- ing profusely, when the General appeared, occupying his usual " Headquarters," rid- ing at the head of an immense calvacade of Staff and body guard, when he en- countered this solitary post boy. All were compelled to halt while this trembling youth was interviewed as to his destina- tion, business, passes, etc. These being answered to the satisfaction of the general, the following parting admonition was given the boy, as he was allowed to ride on : " If I ever catch you riding a horse like this again, I'll tie you down to his tail." The dignity of the important personage, who then filled the office of commander of the Army of Virginia, was not increased in the estimation of one of his subordinates, at least, by the interview.
The experiences were sometimes hazard- ous as well as comical. An incident of
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TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT N. Y. S. VOLUNTEERS.
this nature occurred when the regiment was in camp at Muddy Branch in the fall of 1861. The route to the headquarters was over a ford of the branch, usually about three feet deep. But it had been swelled by heavy rains for two days, and had overflowed its banks to double its usual depth. Weighed down with a heavy mail and a heavier overcoat which was wet through, the crossing was attempted at the usual fording place. The horse was in- stantly carried off her feet, and with mail and mail-bag, swiftly carried down to what seemed a watery grave. Heavy trees and floodwood were lodged against some ob- structions found in the torrent of waters, just below the usual fording place, and the current carried the horse and rider against this with such force that the boy was knocked off his horse, and both went together under the swaying mass for a long distance, coming out below, the horse, freed from his load, swimming to one bank and some soldiers on the op- posite side, near by, rescued his rider, nearly drowned.
Nothing more serious resulted than the wetting of the mail, which was laying strewn about Colonel Brown's tent for the next two days to be dried out before it could be again started. If any one at home thought there was delay in the re- ceipt of letters from the regiment at that time, and never knew the cause, they have now the explanation.
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